


Comme un Diamant dans le Ciel

by Wondering_Writer



Series: Carmen Sandiego One-Shots [2]
Category: Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: F/F, Future Fic, Kid Fic, Married Couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2021-01-02 02:11:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21153869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wondering_Writer/pseuds/Wondering_Writer
Summary: It's the little things that matter most in a big change.





	Comme un Diamant dans le Ciel

Carmen had always had a memory for the small details the rest of the world deemed unimportant. The silly and sweet and quietly unacknowledged feelings of history. She would always remember listening to  _ Strawberry Fields Forever  _ from her phone _ _ the morning they got the call. 

She put it on as she'd started the coffee, swinging her hips to the slow dips and quavers of Lennon's voice. Staring at the pot, hoping to make it brew faster with her half-awake mind, thinking what to do for their fourth wedding anniversary if the third time wasn't the charm. The warehouse was so big, still, and she knew Julia could hear the song because she was singing softly to it as she went about her morning routine of tidying the living room when the phone rang.

Maybe they could go to Poiters? Or Britain? Somewhere with memories for Jules, definitely.

And The phone call was short, maybe a minute, two.  _ Strawberry Fields  _ was fading to  _ Penny Lane _ . Jules was running, hoping in socked feet across the hardwood floor. She swept into the kitchen so fast that the door was still swinging by the time Carmen's tailbone hit the counter to catch Jules' running leap of a hug.

Her wife was crying, smiling, whispering and hiccuping between frantic kisses all over Carmen's face that-- "It worked--it worked--it worked."

Carmen forgot all about the coffee.

* * *

Theirs is a relationship built on discussion, debate, but they spent so long planning for the news in the half a year of prep and five months of treatment that there's not much they haven't already decided on. 

Carmen starts painting the nursery that weekend. Red grass against blue skies dotted with purple air balloons and cars and planes instead of clouds and flowers. She puts a dozen constellations of glow stars on the ceiling when it all dries, quipping from the ladder as her wife tosses room arrangement questions at her. The furniture is all white, and they use the shipping boxes to make dresser drawer dividers and tags to separate closet hangers based on clothes size. It's a winter baby--due the last week of November.

They fill the spare bookcase that's always been in the office-turned-guest room with a gold mine of books from infancy to 5th grade--from fables to school reading list toppers and art history and music selections. On the little wooden toy box painted with Peter Cottontail sits a push black sheep and the baby's own set of Matryoshka dolls. The curtain dusters are blue and white and dotted with little red apples, and the armchair glider is a solid navy blue covered by Jules' favorite throw blanket. Next to the crib is a box of wall letters to spell either Ruby or Jem. 

They keep it under wraps from everyone except Shadow-san until twelve weeks. It's hard to keep secrets from a live-in ninja and a secretly happy grandpa-not-grandpa. The day after the news, they woke up to find an electric mobile with the usual soft toys replaced by laminated origami figures. Player tries to deny tearing up when they show everyone the room as way of an announcement. Ivy and Zack crush Carmen in a group hug in lieu of risking a baby pancake.

It feels good to grow the family.  
  


* * *

Ruby Argent Sandiego--because hyphenated last names are stupid--is born on December 1st at 6:45am, and Carmen is laughing as she cries. They took all the classes, exhaust the nurses with questions, but they still don't feel entirely ready to be discharged the next afternoon. A little uncertainty makes the adventure fun, and when Carmen's smile doesn't convince Jules, her promise to take all the first night shift at least mollifies her wife.

She doesn't regret that promise even at 3am, when Ruby won't take a bottle and cries after changing. She just paces with a sashay to her step, holding all six pounds and nine ounces of her most precious treasure to her chest.

She's singing a French lullaby Jules taught her in all the early morning hours she'd have her head on Jules' stomach, lithe fingers combing through her sleep-wild red mane. Her eyes are on the constellations, and Carmen finds herself replacing little star with their names.

Her hair is a thin crop of black that everyone says will fall out and grow back different as she gets older, and her skin won't settle into something unique between theirs for a few weeks yet. She has Jules' adorable button nose, though, and a fine, thin version of Carmen's eyebrows and expressive smile-not-smile when she's got a gas bubble. Tiny eyes are something black and blue, shifting and fathomless. Ruby has both her mothers' stubbornness, evident in the way they flutter and snap back open with a subtle jerk of her head and a newborn's approximation of a frustrated huff. 

Carmen laughs to herself, smiling when she spies Julia leaning in the doorway with the kind of smile she gets when she wishes she could paint the scene in front of her. Her wife can do anything, Carmen insists, but Julia gets too frustrated to do more than dabble when her vision doesn't translate perfectly to canvas.

"I told you I've got her, babe."

"You did." Jules' voice is gentle, accent outweighed by the sleepy love on her tongue as she runs a hand through her gradually growing hair and sighs. "This will be our longest caper yet."

When she pushes off the doorway, Carmen moves to meet her halfway, well aware of the drool that started creeping onto her shoulder half a minute ago. "Eighteen years or more, yeah, but we got the debrief. We're ready."

Julia's tiptoe-reaching-kiss under the stars Carmen hung says  _ yes  _ and  _ I love you  _ and  _ thank you _ all at once.


End file.
